Women over Sixty want to Look Good, not Young or Younger

Conference paper given at the British Psychological Society Annual Conference, Birmingham, May 2014, (previously presented at presented at the 3rd Aging and Society Conference, Chicago, USA, November 2013).

Objectives: The objective of this paper was to assess the impact of media on attitude to management of skin ageing in women aged 60 or over.

Design: Transcripts from each one hour, semi-structured, audio-recorded interview with each participant (N=21) were thematically analysed.

Methods: Ethical approval was obtained from the University of the Arts London prior to conducting the study. The participants were an opportunity sample of 21 women aged over 60 (mean age: 65 years recruited in response to a University call for participants. Of these, 11 participants had used medical interventions, but not cosmetic surgery, to manage their skin ageing. All participants took part in a one-hour interview which was thematically analysed independently by two of the authors.

Results: Four themes emerged from the data: (i) the use of anti-aging skin care and sun screen products and regimes; (ii) sources of advice for these; (iii) attitudes towards cosmetic surgery; and (iv) the influence of the media.

Conclusions: The participants used a range of anti-aging skin care products and regimes in a variety of ways, sought advice from different sources and were generally not interested in undergoing cosmetic surgery. Despite ubiquitous media images of unattainable, airbrushed, ‘beauty’, and messages equating youth with beauty generally reported satisfaction with the way they managed their skin ageing. When asked if they wanted to look good, look good for their age, look young or look younger, the majority of participants reported that they wanted to look good.